1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium storing a program therefor, and more particularly, to a technique for automatically executing a program in an information processing apparatus including a device interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Control firmwares in recent image processing apparatuses tend to increase in scale and complexity with increase and enhancing in function of the image processing apparatuses. During the development phase of a control firmware, an operation log of the firmware is used to carry out a functional check and investigation for the cause of a failure, for debugging purposes. It should be noted that the operation log of the firmware is one of essential factors for firmware development of an image processing apparatus.
For example, techniques for an image processing apparatus including a device interface such as Universal Serial Bus (hereinafter referred to as “USB”) include a technique which allows acquisition of the operation log by an operation through a user interface (hereinafter referred to as “UI”) of an information processing apparatus. Since the image processing apparatus can also automatically perform predetermined processing without the operation through the UI, upon detection of connection of an external device as a trigger, the operation log can also be retrieved automatically. For example, there is proposed a technique for automatically executing an arbitrary application stored in a USB memory medium according to the contents of the USB memory medium by just operating a USB connection (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2005-122451).
Combination of the above two techniques allows implementation of the function of automatically retrieving an operation log when the USB memory medium is mounted. In some cases, the data size of the operation log is enormous, and it takes a long time to retrieve the operation log. It is thus desirable that retrieving the operation log be performed only when necessary, i.e., when debugging of firmware is necessary.
However, according to a conventional technique, if the firmware controlling the UI of the image processing apparatus stops, a unit itself for saving the operation log into the USB memory medium through the UI cannot be activated, and the operation log cannot be retrieved. This interferes with debugging. According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2005-122451, automatic execution of an application is controlled according to the contents of the USB memory medium. Accordingly, automatically executing the application for acquiring the operation log results from retrieving the operation log even without the need for retrieving.